[Apollo 16 has completed the Trans Lunar Injection burn
(TLI) of the S-IVB third stage of the Saturn V booster. The S-IVB now
holds only 2.75 tonnes of the 108.45 tonnes of propellant that it was
launched with, the balance having been consumed to place the stage and
the attached Apollo spacecraft on the long, three day ballistic coast
to the Moon. The 40 metre long, 65 tonne "stack" of booster and
spacecraft is travelling at 36,360 kilometres per hour, but is slowing
down rapidly since it is still subject to approximately one quarter of
Earth's surface gravity. It will continue to slow down until the Moon's
gravitational pull exceeds that of the Earth, in about two days time.]

[Inside the Command Module, John Young, Ken Mattingly and
Charlie Duke are continuing to prepare to separate the Command and
Service Modules (CSM) from the conical shroud known as the SLA, in 20
minutes time. (NASA sources of the time give varying meanings for this
acronym; either Service Module/Lunar Module Adapter as in the Flight
Plan or, more commonly, Spacecraft/Lunar Module Adapter.) This will
then allow them to turn the CSM around, dock with the Lunar Module (LM)
and extract it from the SLA. This is referred to as Transposition,
Docking and Extraction (TD&E)]

[At present, the on-board tape recorder is not selected
on, so there is no transcript of the crew's discussions. The CM
transcript will start at 003:03:09, two
minutes before separation. For now, we can only follow the crew's
communications with Mission Control, where the CapCom is Gordon
Fullerton, just as it has been through launch, Earth orbit and the TLI
burn.]

Public Affairs Officer: Apollo Control, Houston 2
hours 46 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. We are now receiving radar data
through Hawaii. We presently show Apollo 16 at an altitude of 766
nautical miles [1,418 kilometres].

002 49 28 Duke: Okay, Houston. I'm going to Omni Charlie.

[See 001:29:49 for a description of the four
omni-directional S-Band antennae the crew are using to maintain
communication with Mission Control.]

002 49 43 Duke: Gordy, you got Omni Charlie. Over.

002 49 47 Fullerton: Roger; Omni Charlie, Charlie.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control,
Houston; two hours, 51 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Our countdown clock
at Mission Control shows the time of separation is less than 13 minutes
away now.

Public Affairs Officer: Apollo Control, Houston,
at two hours, 54 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Coming up now on that
time when the booster initiates its manoeuvre to separation attitude.

[After the TLI burn, at 002:41:50, the S-IVB and attached
Apollo spacecraft was manoeuvred to the in-plane local horizontal. This
involved a -25 degree pitch (down), and minus 1 degree yaw (left).Now,
at 002:54:19, the stack is being commanded to manouevre +120 degrees
(up), -40 degrees (yaw) and -180 degrees in roll. This will give the
crew the optimum lighting conditions for the TD&E.]

002 54 35 Mattingly: Okay, and we are manoeuvring to the attitude right now.

002 54 38 Fullerton: Okay.

002 55 12 Fullerton: 16, we see the cabin is up to 5.7 now.

[In Mission Control, the EECOM is monitoring the cabin
pressure, which has now reached the target of 5.7 pounds per square
inch, gauge [39.3 kPa]. The crew will now close the Direct O2 valve.]

002 55 17 Mattingly: Roger. Thank you, sir.

002 55 33 Fullerton: We'd like Omni Delta, please.

002 56 13 Fullerton: Omni Alpha now, please.

002 56 17 Duke: Say again.

002 56 19 Fullerton: Give us Omni Alfa, Charlie.

002 56 24 Duke: Okay, you got it.

002 57 20 Fullerton: Request Omni Bravo now, please.

002 57 26 Duke: You got it.

Public Affairs Officer: Seven minutes away now
from time of separation. We presently show Apollo 16 in altitude of
2,620 nautical miles [4,852 kilometres]. We are at 2 hours, 58 minutes
Ground Elapsed Time. Flight director Gene Kranz, is taking a check with
his flight control team, for a Go/No-Go for transposition, docking and
ejection of the Lunar Module.

002 59 23 Fullerton: 16, Houston. The booster is in attitude and stable. You have a Go for T&D.

[The S-IVB has completed its manoeuvre to the TD&E attitude.]

002 59 33 Young: Roger. We'll give you a call just before we get off.

002 59 40 Fullerton: Okay.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control, Houston at 3 hours Ground Elapsed Time. Present altitude of Apollo 16, 3,004 nautical miles [5,563 km]. Velocity now reading at 26,408 feet [8,049 metres] per second. We are four minutes away now from time of - proposed time of seperation. This is Apollo Control, Houston.

[CM Transcript starts. The crew are on AOH Page 4-322, working through the TD&E checklist.]

003 03 09 Duke (onboard): Okay. GDC Align.

003 03 11 Mattingly (onboard): That's - done.

003 03 13 Duke (onboard): Okay. EMS Function, Delta-V.

003 03 14 Fullerton: Roger. That looks good.

003 03 17 Mattingly (onboard): Okay.

003 03 18 Duke (onboard): Okay, let's read it - you want me to read out the - the rest of it?

003 03 20 Young (onboard): Okay. Go ahead.

003 03 21 Mattingly (onboard): Let's see, I want to get a Verb 62 in here. Is that - that should be about where we start the time, right?

003 03 24 Young (onboard): Yeah.

003 03 25 Duke (onboard): Yeah. We're right at where we start the DET.

003 03 29 Mattingly (onboard): Okay, now, what
we're gonna do - is we're gonna start the clock, and I'll call times.
At 50, I'll take the CMC Mode switch to Auto; at 58, I start hitting
the Plus-X. And then at zero, I push this button.

003 03 49 Young (onboard): Okay.

003 03 50 Mattingly (onboard): We ullage for three seconds, and I release it.

[Separation of the CSM from the
SLA is a fast but complex event. A train of explosive cords sever
electrical connections between the Service Module and the S-IVB; they
cut the metal structure joining the SM to the SLA to allow the
spacecraft to come free; they cut the upper 75% of the conical SLA into
four long sections which are now only joined to the S-IVB by spring
loaded partial hinges at the centre of their lower edge; they set off
pyrotechnic thrusters, mounted within the intact portion of the SLA,
which force pistons to push on the outside edge of each SLA panel,
causing them to begin rotating away from the enclosed Lunar Module.
Once the panels have rotated about 45° from the centreline of the
launch vehicle, the hinges disengage, allowing the springs within the
hinge assembly to push the panels away at about 2.5 m/s, leaving the LM
exposed on top of the Saturn's third stage.(A15FJ)]

Public Affairs Officer: Apollo 16 reporting that
they have captured the Lunar Module. We're at three hours, 16 minutes
Ground Elapsed Time. We show an altitude of 5 706 nautical miles
[10,567 kilometres].

003 16 13 Young: Yeah.

[CM transcript restarts]

003 17 18 Young (onboard): [Garble] on?

003 17 20 Mattingly (onboard): Well, I'm going back over them, and I can't see - Well, I don't know.

003 17 38 Mattingly (onboard): I tell you, it doesn't dress up very much - or even.

003 17 43 Young (onboard): [Garble] should be [garble].

003 17 49 Duke (onboard): Looks like something in the [garble] or something.

003 17 52 Young (onboard): [Garble] Charlie.

003 18 00 Mattingly (onboard): Man, this patience
biz is hard to take (laughter). We're dressing up in pitch now, John,
and the yaw is, too. We're gonna have lots of time here.

003 22 32 Fullerton: We'd like - We noticed the
mixing valves cycling about once every 10, 15 seconds. We'd like to
give you a mark, at which time we want you to put the Glycol Evap Temp
In Valve in Manual and try to catch the flow rate at a - at a
appropriate setting. I'll - I'll give you kind of a countdown and a
mark here.

003 22 54 Mattingly (onboard): I think we saw it before.

003 22 55 Young: Yeah, we've been noticing that ourselves.

003 22 56 Mattingly (onboard): Okay, Charlie. Let me - let me give you some numbers here before I get off. With it - When we were docked...

003 23 01 Fullerton: Okay, flow rate's high and starting back down.

003 23 07 Young (onboard): Go ahead and catch it.

003 23 08 Mattingly (onboard): Okay.

003 23 25 Fullerton: John, now all of a sudden we've stopped seeing it - that it has stopped cycling. You didn't throw the switch already, did you?

003 26 40 Fullerton: Very nice picture, Charlie. We can see Southwestern United States, Lower California. Very nice.

003 26 50 Duke: Good. Ken's doing all that good work for you. It's out his window.

003 27 10 Mattingly: Gordon, is that color okay for you?

003 27 13 Fullerton: Very nice, Ken. Beautiful
color.

003 27 17 Mattingly: I bet it's good, but you
just can't believe how beautiful it is. See the reds in the desert down
there and the Southern United States and northern part of Mexico. And
from here, you see the Great Lakes and the State of Florida out there.
And it's just absolutely something. We're going to go back to work, but
thought you'd enjoy that.

003 27 37 Fullerton: Thank you for the picture.It's the next best thing to being up there.

003 27 49 Mattingly: And - and we might be able to get you an S-IVB later on. That's if you got room to get that kind of stuff.

003 27 59 Fullerton: Okay, we'll be waiting.

003 29 08 Fullerton: 16, Houston. We'll extend the time on commercial TV lines here if - if it looks like we'll get some good shots on the S-IVB.

003 29 19 Mattingly: Okay. I really haven't
worked out the angles to tell you exactly how the Sun is going to be,
but I have an idea we'll see it pretty nicely from here.

003 29 27 Fullerton: Okay, we'll stand by for it.

003 29 39 Young: Just went to Auto on O2 Heater 3, Houston. We're down to that part in the post-docking checklist.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control,
Houston, at 3 hours, 36 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. We presently show
Apollo 16 at a distance of 8,997 nautical miles [16,662 kilometres]
away from the Earth. Velocity now reading 18,818 feet [5,736 metres]
per second. Very little conversation with the crew at this time as they
are in the process of removing the tunnel hatch and going through their
check list prior to separation and ejection of the Lunar Module. We are
at 3 hours, 37 minutes [and] continuing to monitor. This Apollo
Control, Houston.

003 36 36 Duke: We're picking up again on the procedure, Gordy. Cabin pressure's down to 41.

003 36 40 Fullerton: Roger.

003 38 14 Fullerton: 16, Houston. In about 30 seconds, a couple [of] non-propulsive vents will open on the booster.

003 43 00 Mattingly: Houston, it looks like
Number 10 latch is indeed locked. Let me start by saying all the
latches are locked. Number 10 is - is over the ring, but the handle
isn't all the way up flush, and we're just going to leave it alone.
Thought we'd just tell you about it.

003 43 17 Fullerton: Okay, Ken.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control,
Houston at 3 hours, 46 minutes of Ground Elapsed Time. Apollo 16
presently at 10,617 nautical miles [19,663 kilometres] away from the
Earth.

003 47 07 Duke: Okay, Houston. The connectors are connected, and we got LM power to CSM, and the system test is okay.

003 47 14 Fullerton: Roger.

003 47 20 Duke: And, Gordy, the old Rover is right where it's supposed to be.

003 47 25 Fullerton: That's good.

003 49 03 Duke: Houston, 16.

003 49 08 Fullerton: CapCom, 16.

003 49 10 Fullerton: Roger; go ahead.

003 49 12 Duke: Okay,
Gordy. So when we pitched around, I'd like to tell you a little bit
about something we saw on the LM. When we were coming around out about
30 or 40 feet [9 to 12 metres] out, we had a lot of white particles.
Looked like it was coming out from around the Lunar Module. Quite a
number of them. And, as we got closer, it looked like to me that the
primary - most of the particles were coming bet - from between the
ascent propellant tank over quad one and this omni antenna. And it
looks like they was being jetted out from either some outgassing or
something, and we assumed it's Mylar but are not convinced of that.

003 50 05 Fullerton: We copy that, Charlie.

003 50 10 Duke: The only reason we comment on it, it just seemed like there was a awful lot of them.

003 57 37 Mattingly (onboard): Okay. The - the
thing we got to do when we get through here is I want to be sure that
there's a - we're gonna come in the last thing we started and we said
at the time we hit Sep, I start my clock, and - and then at ...

003 57 53 Duke (onboard): To Auto?

003 57 54 Mattingly (onboard): ...three to five seconds, I thrust for three.

003 57 55 Young (onboard): Okay.

003 57 56 Mattingly (onboard): Okay?

003 57 57 Duke (onboard): And you go to Auto - you go to - start your clock and go to Auto.

003 57 59 Mattingly (onboard): And go to Auto. At the same time, John hits the Sep.

003 58 02 Duke (onboard): Okay.

003 58 03 Mattingly (onboard): Right?

003 58 04 Young (onboard): And we'll [garble] all three of the [garble] on the line again.

003 58 06 Mattingly (onboard): Okay, and I'm going
to hold my hand here. Okay; now the next thing is that I want to do
this maneuver - is within 30 - at - any time after 30 seconds, I can
start my maneuver.

003 58 16 Young (onboard): You got to get clear?

003 58 17 Mattingly (onboard): Yeah, 30 seconds
and clear. We'll go [garble] approximately a minute. Okay. They haven't
clued us to get off. I guess that's all we're waiting on. Are there any
questions?

003 58 26 Duke: Houston, we got - We're ready to get off if you guys are ready.

004 07 44 Mattingly: Houston, Casper is out of
his bag; and we got the S-IVB in the window. And the TV is transmitting
pictures of it now, and if you want to do your maneuver with it, we're
well clear.

004 10 32 Mattingly: Roger. We can see it maneuvering. I tell you, they never make movies like these.

004 10 44 Fullerton: I [garble].

004 11 19 Fullerton: We'd like Auto Track on the High Gain, please.

004 11 27 Duke: You got it.

004 11 30 Fullerton: Thank you.

004 12 18 Mattingly: Gordy, we've - we lost the
monitor picture, and we're gonna try to power the TV set down, and
we're gonna check all the connections, and it's got a lot of horizontal
lines. And you really can't even make out the image. It started out
okay, and then while John was taking a picture, it - the monitor
picture went out. So we're gonna try to take a look at it. It's got a
whole bunch of horizontal lines.

004 12 40 Fullerton: Okay, we'll go to ...

004 12 41 Mattingly: It looks like maybe multiple images.

004 12 44 Fullerton: We'll go to the site. Standby.

004 14 24 Fullerton: 16, Houston. The maneuver is complete. We're standing by for your Go for the evasive burn.

Public Affairs Officer: Apollo Control, Houston.
4 hours, 14 minutes. That was Command Module Pilot Ken Mattingly
talking about the television. We now show Apollo 16 at a distance of
14,416 nautical miles [26,698 kilometres], velocity now reads 15,543
feet [4,737 metres] per second.

004 15 20 Fullerton: Okay. On the TV problem, we
had a good picture out at the site there at the first, but then we
started losing signal strength, which would - doesn't really tell us
whether anything is wrong with your monitor set or not.

004 15 35 Mattingly: Okay. Well, we're gonna take pictures like it's working, and you can check it out later.

004 19 03 Young: We can see her moving away now,
Gordon, and she's just slowly picking up a little speed there. Only way
you can tell it's moving is against the - the particles in the
background. I don't think you can see those on TV, but it's - it looks
like there's a million stars out behind the S-IVB as it moves off.

004 19 22 Fullerton: Roger, John.

004 19 36 Fullerton: Now the evasive burn is complete, now.

004 19 39 Young: And -
Roger. And as she moves out of sight, the old Apollo 16 crew would
really like to express their thanks and appreciation to the guys at the
Marshall Space Flight Center that give such a phenomenal ride. Not to
mention the Boeing Company on the First Stage, North American on the
Second, McDAC on the Third, IBM on the IU. It was superb all the way.

004 20 05 Fullerton: Okay, John, I'll speak to them. Thank you.

Public Affairs Officer: Apollo Control, Houston
at 4 hours, 20 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. That was spacecraft
commander John Young expressing his appreciation of the Saturn V team.

004 20 25 Young: And you might relay to old Mike
Waush, thanks a lot for his help. We know he's leaving, and we're sure
glad we didn't have to use any of that training he gave us.

004 20 34 Fullerton: Okay, we'll sure do that. He's just about to walk out the door.

Public Affairs Officer: 4 hours, 21 minutes
Ground Elapsed Time. Mike Waush has worked with the Apollo flight crews
in the training of these crews for the powered phase of launch and
also...

004 21 03 Young: Gordy, up off - looks like
Alaska - up maybe a little farther north - is a pretty good swirl
pattern. Looks like a pretty good storm up there.

004 21 15 Fullerton: Thank you.

Public Affairs Officer: During the powered phase of flight Mike Waush is always positioned right next to the Capsule Communicator.

004 22 01 Waush: Good luck, you fellows. Take it easy, and hope everything works out all right.

004 22 06 Young: Kind words, Mike. Thank you.

004 22 11 Waush: Say again?

004 22 12 Young: Thank you for all your trouble. We sure enjoyed working with you.

004 22 15 Waush: It was certainly my pleasure, John; thank you a lot. Good-bye and good luck.

004 22 19 Young: Thank you, now.

Public Affairs Officer: The voice you just heard
was Mike Waush who is being transferred to the Ames Research Center. We
are at 4 hours, 23 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. We show Apollo 16 at a
distance of 15,707 nautical miles [29,089 kilometres]away from the
Earth. Velocity now reading 14,972 feet [4,563 metres] per second.

004 24 28 Young: Okay and the - the S-IVB has drifted maybe half a mile away now, so we went ahead and turned off the tube.

004 24 37 Fullerton: Okay.

004 25 26 Fullerton: John, just before you turned the mon - the TV off, was the monitor still giving you trouble?

004 25 31 Young: That's affirmative.

004 25 33 Fullerton: Okay, thank you.

004 25 35 Young: I guess it's about time for a little Verb 49 to the P52 attitude. How's that suit you?

004 25 42 Fullerton: Sounds good.

004 26 02 Mattingly: Gordy, the - I can't get over the view of that Earth. None of the pictures just do it justice. Absolutely beautiful.

004 26 16 Young: Man, the thing about it, Gordy,
is that the whole Southern United States, Mexico, and that - and - and
Florida and Cuba and the Virgin Islands down that way - they're all
clear of clouds. It's just fantastic!

004 26 32 Fullerton: Did you take some good pictures?

004 26 36 Young: Got some.

004 26 38 Mattingly: The way we're going, we may have to get a reload before we get to the Moon.

004 26 41 Young: As a matter of fact, you can see as far north as Lake Michigan and Lake Superior.

004 26 48 Fullerton: Sounds great.

004 26 52 Duke: And all the way down past the Yucatan and - and into the Central America.

004 32 02 Mattingly: Houston, we've got the
cabin back up some now, and our LM/CM Delta-P gauge is reading 0.6, and
that's probably due to that Delta[-P] on the cabin. And the O2 Flow Hight light has gone out, so things are getting back to normal.

004 32 16 Fullerton: Okay.

004 33 32 Mattingly: And, Houston, we've done a LM/CM Delta-P; and at time four hours and 30 minutes, we had a plus 0.6.

Public Affairs Officer: Apollo Control, Houston,
at 4 hours, 37 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Our space digital display
in Mission Control [is] presently using the Moon as a reference and we
show that Apollo 16 is 174,639 nautical miles [323,431 kilometres] away
from the Moon. At 4 hours, 37 minutes, continuing to monitor. This is
Apollo Control, Houston.

004 39 52 Fullerton: Apollo 16, Houston. Don't know if you can see it or not, but we've started the LOX dump on the S-IVB.

Public Affairs Officer: Apollo Control, Houston;
4 hours, 50 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. The space digitals display is
still using the Moon as a reference. We presently show Apollo 16 at a
distance of 172 - 173,082 nautical miles [320,548 kilometres] away from
the Moon. Continuing to monitor. This is Apollo Control, Houston.

004 50 51 Mattingly: Houston, got a couple of comments on the EMS for G&C, whenever he has a break.

004 50 59 Fullerton: They're all ears; go ahead.

004 51 03 Mattingly: That must look funny. Okay.
We been running null bias tests here for - well, since we got in orbit
- each time the checklist calls for it. On the first one, we found that
in our hundred-second check, it gained 2.5; then, just before docking,
it got 2.6; and I just ran another one, and I have 2.8. And I don't
really know what you can do with that, but I just thought I'd go ahead
and tell you about that's the magnitude of what we're looking at.

004 51 34 Young: Okay, and our first rough guess
as to how the SCS GDC system is performing, it looks like it's well
within spec in pitch, yaw, and roll, as far as its drift measurements
go.

004 54 19 Fullerton: Ken, sorry about that. We
didn't get coordinated here. We don't have an up-link site, so go back
to Block until after 5 hours, and we'll try it again then.

004 54 29 Mattingly: All righty. They're back in
UpTel to Block. And we're going to be kind of hanging up here for a
while anyhow, while we get our suits off. It - it turns out to be a
pretty interesting operation with these new B-suits.

004 54 46 Fullerton: Roger.

004 54 50 Mattingly:
I'll tell you, Gordy, there were some sights out there that were really
something. One of the - one of the things that - most things happened
like people had said they would. But there were a couple of things that
I had never seen or heard anyone even mention, and maybe they'd been on
- been there all along. But one of the things that was really nifty
was, while we were in powered flight, both in later stages of the boost
and during the TLI burn, there were particles that I could see out the
window that were going past us in the plus-X direction, and I kept
thinking that that was an optical illusion, and I kept going back and
looking at it again, and sure enough! And these were after we were in
steady state. It wasn't around any kind of a staging event or anything
that I was aware of.

004 55 37 Fullerton: Oh, how about that. I haven't heard of that one before.

004 55 43 Mattingly: Then when we - when we
scooted out here and you started your nonpropulsive vent, we could see
- First, it just looked like it was a little mist around the outside
when you looked at the Sun. And then the Sun hit it at such an angle
that you started getting a spectral reflection, and it looked like a
rainbow out over the LM. And then after that, you could look out my
Number 1 window, and apparently the lighting was just right so that it
- it had the appearance of light streaming off to a point source at
infinity. There was a little blank spot in it at the - at what looked
like the origin. And then all these streaks were coming back towards
you, like you were right in the center of a cone. And these things
would change colors. They go to a light - light purple, and then they'd
have a little sandy color to them. That was another one that I don't
remember ever hearing before, and it was - maybe it was just the
lighting on it, but it sure was pretty.

004 56 46 Fullerton: Roger. Enjoying the description.

004 56 53 Mattingly: I'll tell you, you can't wait too many years to make this worth it.

004 56 59 Fullerton: Roger.

004 57 03 Young: Gordy, on that boost, that S-IC is a real freight train. I'll tell you, boy. I can't get over that.

004 57 11 Fullerton: Roger.

004 57 14 Mattingly: Could you folks see that thing on the TV up through staging?

004 57 20 Fullerton: I didn't watch it all the way until it went out of sight. I'll have to check here.

004 57 32 Fullerton: Yeah, I guess we saw even [the LES] tower jett.

004 57 38 Duke: Good show. John's in the middle of his suit doff.

004 57 43 Fullerton: Okay.

Public Affairs Officer: We're at four hours, 58 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Most of that long description coming from Ken Mattingly, how...

004 57 52 Mattingly: And thanks to good old Stu Roosa's suggestion, we wrote in the Flight Plan to be sure and take a look at the fires out there in Africa as we went over, which is something we probably would have forgotten or never even thought about. And they are just as beautiful as everybody's ever said they could be. They're just all over the place. All these little - little yellowish-red dots down there. And there was some - looked like some low overcast in parts of the area, or maybe it was - from our altitude, maybe it was a high overcast. But it just gave - It looked like looking at the lights of a city through fog, and then there were others that were clear. Just something well worth remembering to look for.

004 58 32 Fullerton: Roger. We'll be sure to remind Ron to look for that one.

004 58 43 Mattingly: I tell you, God didn't equip us with enough eyes to see everything that there is to see in the first hour.

004 58 51 Fullerton: Roger.

Public Affairs Officer: Apollo Control, Houston. 4 hours, 59 minutes. That last remark coming from Command Module Pilot Ken Mattingly. Our space digital display still using the Moon as a reference. We show Apollo 16 172,048 nautical miles [318,633 kilometres] away from the Moon.

004 59 26 Mattingly: Gordy, it looks like this
whole operation may take us longer than - than we had guessed. Is there
any thermal constraint on getting a 52 attitude and going to those
other attitudes? Looks like [garble].

004 59 41 Fullerton: I'll cheek on that, Ken. We're about...

004 59 42 Mattingly: ...but I just wondered if that's something we ought, to keep in mind.

004 59 47 Fullerton: Okays. we're about to a handover here. I'll check on that and come back to you through Hawaii.

004 59 51 Mattingly: Okay, thank you.

005 00 46 Fullerton: 16, we're - through Hawaii
now. And you're scheduled in this attitude through 7 hours or - at
least, so no problem thermally, and you're not even due to do the P52
for another half hour, so you're plenty ahead.

005 01 03 Mattingly: Okay, that P52 - We're
going to come to a decision point; here pretty soon, whether to - you
want us to do that and we'll pick up the suit doffing after that, or we
- I'd just as soon go ahead and do the - get all the suits out of the
way. And we can do the 52 on schedule, or we can do it after we get the
suits off. Does it make any difference to you folks ?

005 01 24 Fullerton: Let me check.

005 01 56 Fullerton: If that's what you'd like
to do, why don't you go ahead with the - finish up the suits. No
problem slipping the 52 a little bit. And we'd like P00 and Accept for
that up-link.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control,
Houston at 5 hours, 10 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Our displays still
show the Moon as our reference so we show Apollo 16 at a distance of
170,878 nautical miles away [316,466 kilometres] from the Moon and
we've had no conversation for a while with the crew of Apollo 16. We
suspect they are in the process of doffing their space suits and later
preparation for their eat period which is scheduled to begin at six
hours Ground Elapsed Time. Five hours, 10 minutes Ground Elapsed Time,
this is Apollo Control, Houston.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control,
Houston at five hours 30 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Our space digital
display now using the Earth reference. We show Apollo 16 at 23,892
nautical miles away from the Earth. Velocity now reading 12,295 feet
[3,747 metres] per second.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control,
Houston at 5 hours, 44 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. We presently show
Apollo 16 at a distance of 25,488 nautical miles [46,204 kilometres]
away from the Earth. Velocity now reading 11,945 feet [3,504 metres]
per second. Very shortly in Mission Control we will have the change of
shift - or shift change over of the Gene Kranz team of flight
controllers will be replaced by the Pete Franks team of flight
controllers. We're at 5 hours, 45 minutes and continuing to monitor.
This is Apollo Control, Houston.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control,
Houston; 5 hours, 50 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. We presently show
Apollo 16 at a distance of 26,143 nautical miles [48,417 kilometres]
away from the Earth. And traveling at a velocity of 11,796 feet [3,595
metres] per second. We're continuing with our shift turnover in the
Mission Control Center at the present time. Pete Franks' team of Orange
Flight Controllers coming aboard replacing the Gene Kranz team of White
Flight Controllers. We estimate the start time of our change in shift
news conference 6 to 6:15 p.m. Central Standard Time. The news
conference will involve Flight Director Gene Kranz, CapCom astronaut
Gordon Fullerton and booster systems engineer Frank Van Rensselaer.
This news conference will be held in the news center briefing
auditorium - in the news center briefing auditorium instead of the
large public affairs auditorium. We are at 5 hours, 51 minutes Ground
Elapsed Time. This is Apollo Control, Houston.

006 03 54 Duke: Hello, Houston; 16. John and I are back up now.

006 04 00 Fullerton: Roger. That up-link is complete. In case you didn't hear me some time ago, the computer is yours.

006 04 l0 Young: Okay, we're in Block.

006 04 12 Fullerton: Roger.

006 04 13 Young: And it took us about an hour for me and Charlie to climb out of those suits and stow them. It's really something.

006 04 23 Fullerton: Roger.

[Removal and stowage of the A-7LB spacesuits was
discussed by John Young, Ken Mattingly and Charlie Duke during the 1972
post-mission debrief:

Young: Climbing out or that suit is really something.

Mattingly: We had a hard time getting the suits
into the suit gag because we were trying to be careful of them. I don't
know if taking our pockets off would have helped us or not.

Young: Taking the pockets off is another 10 or 15
minutes per suit. The way they put those things on they're on there to
stay. The best way to get them off is to cut them off.

Mattingly: The only point I'm making is that I have stowed suits in the bag in stowage exercises and it's a not a big deal.

Young: It's entirely different in flight and I think there are couple of things that are different. One is the suits which we stowed here [on Earth] never had the pockets and all the paraphenalia straps on. The other thing is you have an old beat up suit that's a rag. You don't care if you step on it, kick it, or what you do to it but when you re on your way to the Moon, you're being ginger with those things.

Mattingly: The bag is just too small for the suits.

Young: Here's something I feel pretty strong
about. We haven't had any problems so far but I think that the crews
that are going to have to take these suits off and stow them in a bag
should be given a demonstration on how to properly roll up and stow an
A-7LB pressure suit by a suit technician close to launch so they don't
forget what they've learned. Course, that's just another square to fill
close to launch. If you damage that suit by stowing it in that bag, and
I can see how you could do that because you wouldn't believe the kind
of kicking, grunting, shoving and heaving you have to do in zero g to
get that suit in there, and if you damage it, there goes your mission
because you can't fix it.

Mattingly: I think that you should point out, we only stowed two suits in a three-suit bag.

Young: Yes. We only put two suits in there. We got
three suits in there on the way back and then found out that we weren't
supposed to have three suits in there. We were supposed to stow one of
them under the couch. And, we only put two in there on the way out. We
stowed Ken's suit undernearth the left couch. But, I was always
concerned that maybe we had folded a suit in the wrong direction and
put some undue strain on the zipper. We had zipped the zipper up, but
we hadn't zipped the pressure sealing zipper up all the way. But we
zipped the restraint zipper all the way up and we put the neck ring's
dust cover on it.

Mattingly: I think it's a shame to take a chance on the suits on your way to the Moon. I think you should make that bag bigger.

Young: There's about this much room between the
bag and the front hatch which is not used and I don't see why they
don't make that big enough so that a guy is not ruining his EVA by
stowing his pressure suit. Now, maybe the CSD people will come back and
say you can't hurt those pressure suits. But if I know Ed Smiley, I
reckon he feels that way about it, probably.

Mattingly: Well, the other thing is, when you fold
these on the ground and you got one g helping you pull it up into a
little ball. In flight, it is whatever you could get with your arms.

Young: The other problem is that J-mission
spacecraft, with those boxes under you, only one man can get in there
to do the job at any one time,You can't get two men in the space to
push the suit right. Well, it was of some concern to me in that we were
treating suits properly when we stowed them that first time.We set a
new world record for suit donning and doffing in zero gravity and
1/6-gravity seven times, something I would just as soon not have,we
were behind the first day. We didn't have enough time in the timeline
to doff the suits and stow them, we didn't have any time in there with
one man in the middle of suit doffing, another man is handicapped
because he's helping. So, that leaves one man to mind the store.

Mattingly: We actually had time in the Flight Plan
for doffing the suits. We just didn't have adequate time. We had an
hour or less and we used almost one hour on the first suit.]

006 05 19 Fullerton: 16, Houston.

006 05 23 Young: Go ahead, Gordon.

006 05 25 Fullerton: I'm going to hand over to
Pete here. He's coming on with a good boost there. He's got a bunch of
- P37 pad and a bunch of Flight Plan updates for you when you get
somebody free to do some stenographic work there. Enjoyed the first six
hours. Hope the rest of it goes as well.

006 05 50 Young: Gordon, that was beautiful. Tell Flight and the guys down in the trenches, "Man, that was super!"

006 05 55 Fullerton: Okay.

[At this point there is a shift change in Mission
Control, with the Orange Team under Pete Frank taking over control. The
new CapCom is Donald Peterson. "Pete" Peterson joined the astronaut
corps in 1969, but did not fly until the sixth Shuttle mission in 1983.]

006 14 26 Peterson: Roger. Then we've got the
change to the CSM Experiments/EVA Checklist having to do with the
ultraviolet filter. UV filter apparently did not meet the specs, and
we're going to have to make some changes to the exposures at - on
several different pages in the checklist.

006 14 56 Young: We'll wait on that; we don't have that checklist out yet, Pete.

006 17 05 Peterson: Stand by one. We're still looking at it; it looks pretty good right now.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control. We've now completed our shift hand over in Mission Control. Flight Director Pete Frank and the Orange Team of Flight Controllers. The CapCom on this shift is astronaut Donald Peterson. We have a change of shift press briefing scheduled to begin momentarily in the MSC News Center briefing room as is our normal practice during change of shift briefings we will have the air to ground line down and we'll be recording any conservations with the crew for playback following the press conference. The coming eight hours or so should be a relatively quiet time for the crew. The booster engineer has pretty well taken care of all activities with the Saturn V third stage of the S-IVB [sic - means S-IVB third stage of the Saturn V]. That vehicle is now gradually separating from the spacecraft [and] tumbling slowly. This is to maintain the proper thermal equilibrium and also to kind of neutralize out any changes in velocity added or subtracted by small ventings from any of the tanks. A normal procedure with the S-IVB.

Public Affairs Officer: The crew is scheduled to
begin a eat period and as we passed up to Charlie Duke we do not expect
to have Midcourse Correction 1 based on the current tracking data. At 6
hours, 19 minutes, Apollo 16 is traveling at a velocity of 11,159 feet
[3,401 metres] per second now, 29,187 nautical miles [54,054
kilometres] from Earth. This is Apollo Control, Houston.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control at
6 hours 41 minutes. During the change of shift briefing we accumulated
a small amount of tape conversations which we'll play back for you at
this time. And then continue to stand by live following that tape
playback.

006 31 15 Young: Houston, now have Noun 93; are you happy?

006 31 22 Peterson: In a minute, 16.

006 31 30 Peterson: Okay, 16. You can go ahead and program.

006 39 53 Peterson: 16, Houston.

006 39 57 Young: Go ahead.

006 39 58 Peterson: Roger. Just wanted to remind you that, before you start the UV photography, we've got to change all the exposures.

006 40 05 Young: Okay.

006 43 01 Duke: Pete, 16 here. Go ahead with the update. Give me a page number for the UV, and we'll update the filter settings.

006 45 58 Peterson: Okay, on page 2-36 - about
1/3 of the way down the page where it says "Configure lens f/8,1/30, 4"
- We want to change that to "Configure lens 1/2 stop between f/5.6 and
f/8, 1/15, and."